Blues guitarist Davy Knowles celebrates Rory Gallagher

By Chad Berndtson/For The Patriot Ledger

Wednesday

Apr 11, 2018 at 3:20 PM

Every lover of electric blues and a snarling Stratocaster eventually gets to Rory Gallagher: Irish guitar legend, a giant of the instrument, and the effects of whose storied music career in the 1970s and 80s are still felt.

Among the countless young guitarists Gallagher’s legacy inspired was Davy Knowles, the 30-year-old upstart who came to prominence over the past decade, first with the band Back Door Slam and then under his own name as a guitarist, singer and blues stylist.

Now — in what he describes as a “huge and inspiring opportunity” — Knowles is on the road for a tour with two of Gallagher’s longtime bandmates, paying homage with nights of stem-winding, highly visceral blues jamming in the various forms Gallagher himself cherished.

“I get to jam with some of my heroes and pay respect to someone who in many ways gave me a career,” Knowles said. “He’s such a massive influence on me and after the first show doing this it was clear this is going to be a fantastic tour.”

Knowles is out with a version of “Band of Friends,” a Europe-based collective that celebrates Gallagher’s music and includes longtime Gallagher associates Ted McKenna (drums) and Gerry McAvoy (bass), as well as renowned guitarist Marcel Scherpenzeel and other players that rotate in as needed.

This U.S. version of the group — which swaps in Knowles on guitar and vocals, joined by McKenna and McAvoy as a crackling rhythm section — stops at Fall River’s Narrows Center for the Arts on April 20, and also has a date at the Center for the Arts in Natick on Saturday April 21 before continuing down the East Coast and into the midwest.

“It’s not a tribute in the sense of we’re going out there exactly the way Rory did and playing exactly the way he did,” Knowles explained. “That wouldn’t be true to Rory or the style he embraced. His musical direction was really open — he had that element of excitement in it. We want to celebrate that, and what was a pretty far-reaching influence.”

Knowles himself sadly never got to see his hero perform live; Gallagher died in 1995 at age 47, when Knowles was 8 years old. But Knowles heard Gallagher early on; growing up in the Isle of Man, he first heard traditional Celtic music, but Gallagher’s signature strains weren’t far behind.

“I remember thinking of Celtic music as kind of fuddy-duddy — you know, old people’s music, and that of course was very wrong,” Knowles says. “When I first heard Rory, I heard a lot of the Celtic inflections — those elements — mixed in with this exotic, very aggressive American sounding blues. That combination blew me away. I felt like I was hearing something that could blow it all wide open but that was also familiar to me and deeply connected with where I came from.”

Knowles has played Gallagher tunes in his sets for years; his take on Gallagher’s anxious “What in the World” is a particular showstopper. The Band of Friends shows will focus mainly on Gallagher songs, with other songs from the band and a few Knowles originals sprinkled in.

Knowles later this year will return to his regular trio and begin recording a new album, but for now, he chuckles, his focus is on “not [messing] this up.”

“These guys have so much energy, I feel like the oldest one in the band,” he said, laughing. “It’s a really kind of deep musical moment to share the stage with these people.”